the moon rose I again wandered out among them. The effect of the moonlight was very fine, especially upon the portals. August 23rd.-In the morning early I went first to visit the tombs. In the first were two sarcophagi cut out of the rock, 9 feet 4 inches long, by 3 feet 10 inches broad. The tomb itself was 21 feet long by 11 feet 1 inch broad; it was mostly filled up with mud brought in by the rains. There was a mud inclosure round the whole, and it was separated from the platform by another. I observed marks of iron cramps to join a piece of the rock, exactly as at Cyrus's tomb. The frontispiece was very fine: the figure of the priest was rather squat and over-headed, but the execution of the whole was very beautiful. The second tomb was in a more ruinous condition, and generally of the same design as the first one, but it is by a different hand, and I believe is more ancient. The priest is better sketched; in the inside were three alcoves, but no sarcophagi. The general view of the ruins was grand: the colonnade, in which fifteen columns were still standing, very fine; the principal building rather what the French call écrasé, stuffed and very heavy; but the execution of the whole was beautiful. The portals at the landing-place were much too narrow ; all the doors were narrow: in short, the same defects were conspicuous in these as prevail in modern oriental buildings. The whole ruin, how ever, is extremely interesting. The beauty and fidelity of such of Sir R. K. Porter's drawings as I recollect struck me forcibly. * I was out all the morning wandering about the ruins. The inscriptions round the windows in the first building going through the colonnade are all the same. In many parts of the ruins it may be seen that the enormous blocks of stone have been hollowed out, to make them more transportable, as at Mesjid i Mader i Suleiman. The plain in which these celebrated ruins stand seems very favourable to longevity. More than one person was mentioned to me as having attained the age of a hundred; and there are many who remember Nadir Shah. These are distinguished by the appellation of Dour i Naderi. August 24th.-I began copying the three inscriptions on the high pilaster of a single stone in the south-west corner of the écrasé building,† which is marked G in Niebuhr's plan, of which a most incorrect copy has been published by Le Brun. I set a party to work to clear out the south face of the platform on which the above-mentioned building stands, as there are three inscriptions on it, and a row of figures very perfectly preserved, from their *They pretend that a Mullah, of the name of Karkhi, made out the inscriptions. See Plates 13, 14, 15. Voyage d'Arabie, &c., par Niebuhr, tom. 2nd, p. 98, tab. 18, p. 111, tab. 26. Quarto. § They had on fluted kaouks and quivers. Query - do these figures represent the troops called the immortals? Pl.XIII Persisht stription on the high single-stone pilarter in the SW Corner of the principal building attestamy minin the Colonnade. (The building macked & in Mielucher's plan) – this Veription is in three Jabeeti one under the ther; all about the same headth. & Halthe uppermost a fist Tablet །།།།།།།།EA།༑༑རྵ།།།།»།༑༑ །།།ང ༄། །།།། །།F། །། །༑ །། །།།།། །།༨ ( KA༑ །ཛཿ།།༨ །། །།། །། །།ར།།།།།།།།༨།༨། རྫ།། ༑༑ IK།༑ །=།། །ཨོཾ།།ཀཽཀང།།།Y༑།༑༑ །← K །།། ། །ང དོ།། །། །།དངང རྞ།K(།།«K །།།ཎྜ།K།།། །།«K།ར།།༑«།«༨།ཀཎྜ ~ (།།ང(།།།།།A- །-།།༨།ཀཽ ཀཽHཎྜ།།༨ རྟ྾ (།།× །།།×།=།-།། །།།།།།། -།། །།།།།།།༨-།༨།E།།།།FA།(༥E(།(།།།།།།།།«-(KA ཇ།།། ༨།།༈ K །།༴།།།། །།།=།།༑༑K།། «K །༑༈ །། ༑།། །།།༅།། ཤར །།«༨ -(K(KAEIར།H= [ TK-་ C. Hullmandel's Lithography |